An Awesome Book of Love!

Clayton’s companion to The Awesome Book! is an exclamatory love poem (“I love you so much/ I would scream it from mountains/ And dance like a fool in/ the coldest town fountains”). Quirky drawings in rainbow shades have a psychedelic edge (a purple bear with hearts blasting from its chest could have stumbled off of a Grateful Dead album cover), while the verse might have been sampled from indie rock: “Sometimes it’s a whisper/ when you feel you could shout/ or just being around/ when the others have gone/ or about/ letting go/ when you want to hold on.” Peculiar creatures frolic throughout—an elephant parachutes from a plane, a robot embraces a dinosaur—creating a fresh and lightly irreverent backdrop for Clayton’s earnest verse. Ages 4–8. (Jan.)